Additions to the Garden of Southern Follies and Delights

Additions to the Garden of Southern Follies and Delights

shrubs

In a couple of months, a couple little starts of Gardenia 'Sweet Tea™' are going to wake up on a snowy morning and realize they are not in the south any longer.

They are in my Garden of Southern Follies and Delights, nestled in with two camellias that have so far survived one winter, three "big box" crepe myrtles sold as perennials, and a bunch of dandelions.

The dandelions are ruining the

Dear Southern Camellia Sisters

Dear Southern Camellia Sisters

Humor shrubs

Dear Southern Camellia Sisters,

Hello from the Midwest. We cannot believe it has been six months since we last wrote to give you an update on our adventures here in the Midwest.

First, we need to report some sad news. It appears that our dear sister camellia 'Kuro Delight' did not make it through the winter.  'Snow Flurry' and I ('April Delight') watched and waited for her to leaf out but

All my thoughts are in the garden

All my thoughts are in the garden

birds shrubs

Where are my thoughts these days?

I never have to wonder too much about where my thoughts are because most of the time, I can find them in the garden.

I've been thinking lately about attracting more birds to the garden, not by setting up "fast food" stations like hummingbird feeders, but by planting more plants that provide food for them.

One such plant is a Sundenia® Dipladenias. It's in a

Another week closer to spring

Another week closer to spring

Humor shrubs

Camellia 'April Remembered'

Hang in there, Camellia!

You just got through another week of winter which means you are a week closer to spring.  It was a cold week, but I'm feeling pretty good about your chances of surviving it.

Your leaves look green and your buds actually look a little plumper than a few weeks ago.  We did get some snow and it got pretty cold there for awhile, but you still

Dear Southern Camellia Sisters

Dear Southern Camellia Sisters

Humor shrubs

Camellia bud

Dear Southern Camellia Sisters,

Hello from the north!

We thought it was high time we should write to let you know we arrived safely in the Midwest months ago and are more or less settled in our new home, a place called The Garden of Southern Follies and Delights.  It's part of a garden known as May Dreams Gardens.  We had a lovely spring, a wet, for the most part, summer, and so

What does it do?

What does it do?

shrubs trees

"What does it do?" is a question a friend of mine often asks me when she goes with me to a garden center.

As we walk among the trees and shrubs, I'm thinking Fothergill gardenii, great fall foliage, Syringa, love the smell of the blooms in the spring and mom really liked those flowers, Rhodendendron, rarely a good choice around here, Potentilla fruticosa, related to roses Cotinus coggygria, 

Double Flowering Mock Orange Defies the Odds in My Garden

Double Flowering Mock Orange Defies the Odds in My Garden

shrubs

A double-flowering mock orange, Philadelphus 'Buckley's Quill' has defied the odds and continues to grow in my garden

In my garden, the double-flowering mock orange is hidden behind some other shrubs, including a pearl bush, Exochorda,  so it is only visible if you walk into the vegetable garden and look from there  to the backside of a border called The Shrubbery.

It is so hidden my first